Shepreth Wildlife Park Review – Relaxing Family Fun

I’d first seen Shepreth Wildlife Park while at my local train station, I was browsing their leaflets & happened upon a flyer for the park. It looked right up B’s street. A great mix of animals, soft play & outside play. I left our trip till I knew we were set for good weather & thankfully we got it bang on. I didn’t tell B where he was heading as I like to keep trips a surprise now, so he’ll sleep and everything!

Our journey was an easy one, we could have opted to take a direct train to Shepreth but I decided to drive as our last train journey didn’t go too well ( I had to get my dad to pick us up!). There is a train station literally right next door to the Park so if you can I definitely recommend you do take the train, theres also a nice discount for those that can provide a valid train ticket!
If you’ve read my previous reviews you’ll know that parking is something I always worry about, theres no issues here as they have their own carpark, it isn’t huge but when we went it was perfectly adequate.

I coerced B into his buggy as I’d recently been ill & hadn’t quite got my strength back enough to carry him around as & when he required me! The carpark was easy to navigate with the buggy & it was quite easy getting into the entrance although it would have helped if the door had been open so I didn’t have to shimmy B through.
You enter via the gift shop, always hard right as the kids always want something but thankfully this time it was just a lolly! We got our tickets & were provided with a map & the lady who served us told us what was on & where.
Not that B allowed me to even look at the map before shouting that he wanted to go straight to the soft play.

The first thing that struck me whilst walking around looking for the soft play was how interesting the layout was, it was almost like you were walking through the woods & just happening across these animals. The pathways are sweet & theres no regimented way around. You are free to wander as you please.
We found some lovely areas just by wandering around aimlessly.

We found a really adorable small, EMPTY, soft play while we were walking around & B instantly wanted to head inside.
B had chosen this as the day that he wanted to take Pikachu out on an excursion, so Pikachu went around the mini soft play frame with B. This place was empty both times B wanted to venture in & he absolutely loved it.
It has one slide, a little ballpit with a scattering of balls & some bits he could climb up but he absolutely LOVED it.
Its in a little hut next to the outdoor play park, I can imagine it being a little cold in the winter but it was perfect for the day we chose. ( There are heaters in there by the way).

After spending some time in the soft play we headed outside to play. The day prior to our trip it had rained so a few of the slides still had wet patches which of course B went flying through!

B would have quite happily spent his entire day out exploring the park, he absolutely loved the pirate ship. He struggles with his confidence but found this play area quite easy to negotiate & enjoy. I was quite happy standing on the sidelines watching, I felt he was safe in all the areas.

There was also some ride-on cars which cost £1, along with some diggers & 2 trampolines built into the ground! The trampolines are free but I must add I really did think I put b in them wrongly due to the safety nets around them, the poor kid just looked at me confused as I squeezed him in.

I managed to get B to let me have another walk around the park where we came across some beautiful animals, I say some because he didn’t let me enjoy them for long & certainly wouldn’t let me photograph many of them. Shepreth Wildlife Park has a nice mixture of animals from adorable Donkeys to gorgeous Tigers!
The animals look happy & comfortable in their environments which I must add appear to have had a lot of thought put in to them, they feel really ‘natural’. The Tigers certainly weren’t coming for tea, they were nowhere to be seen. Having their beauty sleep I expect.
B absolutely loved checking out the Meerkats, he found them absolutely hilarious. ESPECIALLY when Mummy decided to do a voice over of what the animals were ‘really saying’.
His other favourite animal was the lemur, the lemur who was swinging away in his own little word on the cutest swing. B wondered how he or she got up there, how he’d get down, why he were there haha. It was so adorable!

On our walk around we happened upon a Café with a rather snazzy soft play inside, THAT WAS IT, be was off like a shot leaving me behind to get a table & pop his things away neatly. We were the first ones inside so he had the run of the place! He absolutely loved it, he experimented on his own then forced me into the ball firing mini arena, perhaps not its real name BUT it suits me!
The Soft play is of a rather decent size, you’ve got your usual slides & climbing bits. By far though, my favourite part was the ball area or as I’ve called it ‘the ball firing mini arena’. There were ball vacuums & best of all ball firing cannons, B & I played with these for what seemed like ages. B is 3 & found them easy to use & great fun.
This is the perfect place to head if theres every any bad weather, you can sit with some food & watch over your little one playing. Thankfully this is a place where you can literally see the entire play frame.

Please note the food offered in the Cafè is basic but nice, the chips we had whilst they took a while to come were well cooked & actually rather yummy. I had a nosey at other peoples food as it came out & it also looked A-okay. As a vegan I can’t expect there to be much on the menu so I was more than happy with the chips!
Priced like any other attraction, I personally didn’t think it was too expensive but thats just my personal opinion.
You are more than welcome to bring a picnic but it MUST be consumed in the areas provided & not inside the soft play.

I highly recommend having a good look around the park either with the map to hand or just seeing where you end up as there are some brilliant places you can have your picture taken. B is a huge fan of these & shouted at me until I took the photos that he wanted. I love these style of shots as its always good to have a memory of the place you’ve visited.
Tiny bit gutted that I wasn’t able to be in the shots with B but he did own them!

All in all myself & B had an absolutely lovely trip to Shepreth Wildlife Park, I would love to go back again & get him on the little train ( It wasn’t running when we went ). We both enjoyed ourselves & have both said we’d go back, B especially likes to recant the tale of the Lemur on the swing. Shepreth Wildlife Park has clearly made an impression on the boy.
I would have appreciated Kiddie friendly toilet seats but other than that there isn’t anything I’d like to see changed.

That sounds like such a great place to visit. I love it when you can really relax at a wildlife park and just meander around the paths like you seem to have done. And tigers! They’re our favourite, what a shame they were asleep!!

This looks fantastic! I love it when you find a small and empty soft play I find them so overwhelming and busy at times, especially with a nervous toddler…great review and we will look into it, I need holiday activity ideas